‍

A Shocking Betrayal That Shattered the American Dream

Ty and Katie Davis were living the American Dream.

In six years, the young couple built a thriving Subway franchise empire from the ground up. Starting with a single shop, they poured their hearts into the business and expanded to 24 Subway stores across Oregon.

By 2024, Ty and Katie were celebrated as the top Subway franchisees in the state. They leveraged everything, worked “their buns off for six years” to create a company that would secure their children’s future.

But one summer day in 2024, their world collapsed. While on a family vacation in Cancun with their two young daughters, Capri and Tenley, Ty received a chilling text message:

“Have fun in Cancun. When you get home, I’m going to make your life a living hell.”

Alarmed, Ty immediately forwarded the message to the one person he trusted most with their company’s finances – his mother, and the company’s CFO. Ty’s mother assured him it was probably a scammer and best to block them.

Ty and Katie tried to enjoy the rest of their vacation, but an increasingly uneasy feeling gnawed at them. “Who knows that I’m in Cancun with my family. Who is this person?” Ty remembers thinking – unhappy with the thought of blocking someone who had knowledge of their whereabouts.

‍

‍

Dread Becomes a Reality

Their dread was justified. On their return to the States, as the Davis family sat stranded in the Cancun airport during a freak global flight delay, Ty opened his laptop to check their business accounts – and plunged into a nightmare.

“I call my mom, and I’m like, ‘What is happening? I’m seeing all these transactions with the bank. What is going on?’” he recalls.

That’s when his mother dropped a bombshell. A series of fraudulent wire transfers had drained over two million dollars from the company’s accounts to an overseas bank in Turkey.

Every safety net Ty thought they had – FDIC insurance, FBI investigators, corporate support from Subway – his mother insisted none could save them. In a matter of days, virtually all the company’s funds were gone.

A Betrayal From Within

Stunned and in disbelief, Ty and Katie flew home and drove straight to Ty’s mother’s to confront the situation. There, the person they had trusted with everything spun an elaborate story of international wire fraud and urged them to accept defeat. “We’re going to have to file bankruptcy,” Ty’s mother said.

Ty was torn. “Half of me is going, there’s no way my mom’s involved, because that’s my mom and she would never do that to her granddaughters,” he remembers.

But Katie’s intuition screamed that the story didn’t add up. Why was Ty’s mother so quick to admit defeat after all the hard work they’d put into the company?

It soon became painfully clear that this was not a random cybercrime at all – it was a betrayal from within. The Davis’s trusted CFO, Ty’s own mother, had mismanaged or siphoned away all the company’s funds.

In the weeks that followed, Ty and Katie discovered more unsettling truths. Ty’s mother had been arranging unusual loans without their knowledge and her explanations kept unraveling. They eventually had no choice but to declare bankruptcy on the business and cut contact with Ty’s mother.

Naturally for Ty, the heartbreak runs deeper than financial loss – his own mom had effectively destroyed their livelihood.

‍

‍

Losing Everything, Despair & Depression

In a matter of weeks, the Davis family’s comfortable life in Oregon was erased. The Subway stores – their years of hard work – were gone overnight. Ty and Katie had to sell their home to cover debts, walking away with almost nothing.

Overnight, they went from being successful business owners to having “no way out.” The psychological toll was devastating. Depression consumed them both.

The couple fell into what Ty calls the “hole.” He describes a “monster that used to just live inside of my head. And he would just drag you down into this hole… you feel like life is just never going to go on.. both of us were so depressed – like, suicidally depressed.”

With their income gone and a cloud of shame and confusion hanging over them they found it challenging to land new jobs. And the darkness grew, consuming every aspect of their lives. “Our kids were suffering, we were suffering, our marriage was suffering,” Ty explains. He feared the trauma would “ruin our daughters for life.”

What made it worse was the profound sense of injustice – they hadn’t lost their business due to bad decisions or market conditions, but through betrayal. For a time, Ty and Katie wondered if they would ever feel “normal” or hopeful again.

Then amid their financial freefall, Ty and Katie were dealt the further blow of losing two pregnancies. This added a private heartbreak on top of everything else they were enduring. “We've suffered two miscarriages along the way,” Ty recalled, describing a time he simply called “a nightmare, truthfully. A nightmare”.

The compounding grief pushed them to a breaking point. “Kate and I ... got to a point where ... life just sucks. I don't know what else to say,” he admitted. Some days it became “hard to even get out of bed” – the despair, he said, was “incapacitating”.

‍

‍

A Leap of Faith: Discovering Boundless Life

Ironically, the path to salvation started at a simple dinner with friends.

One evening, Ty and Katie heard about another family who had decided to spend a few months in Pistoia, Italy, through a program called Boundless Life – a travel community for families. The concept immediately intrigued the Davises. The idea of temporarily relocating abroad with their children, combining work, family time, and adventure, lit a spark inside them.

In that moment, they realized what they craved most was a fresh start. That seed of an idea – escaping the scene of their heartbreak and starting over somewhere new – took root.

In the weeks that followed, Ty and Katie found themselves scrolling through the Boundless Life website and social media. For the first time in a long while, they felt a glimmer of hope.

Still, practical concerns loomed. They had a small amount of equity left from selling their house – money they’d hoped to eventually use to buy another home and rebuild their life. Could they really spend it on an overseas adventure? At first, they hesitated, dutifully job-hunting by day and telling themselves Boundless Life was a fantasy they couldn’t afford.

Choosing Change & Not Misery

One morning, reality hit them with clarity. Ty and Katie looked at each other and came to the same conclusion: “What are we doing? What’s this money for? Our kids are suffering, we’re suffering… Who knows how long we can just limp through life like this?”

In that instant, their priorities crystallized. Keeping that money in the bank meant nothing if their family continued to drown in misery. “Let’s just cut Boundless Life a check,” Ty said, decisively. “I don’t even care what location it’s for.”

It was a leap of faith in every sense. In late 2024, Ty and Katie signed their family up for a 3-month Boundless Life cohort. Initially, they were slated for Italy. When a spot for their older daughter didn’t open up in the Italian cohort, Boundless Life offered them an alternative: Bali. Soon after, however, they discovered they were expecting and decided to opt out of that location.

Finally came a third option: Montenegro, a country they knew little about. Then, on the morning they received the heartbreaking news of their second miscarriage, another message arrived from their Boundless Life representative – this time telling them they couldn’t stay in the Kotor co-living building with their two dogs.

In that moment, Ty recalls, “Kate’s on the phone with her mom, bawling, crying, like our life is crumbling.” But then came their lifeline. Katie’s mom stepped in without hesitation: “She’s like, I’ll take the dogs for three months. You guys go.”

On September 4, 2025, the Davis family landed in Montenegro, marking their first visit to Europe, and in fact, their first travel ever beyond the United States and Mexico.

As their car emerged from the mountain tunnel leading into the bay, Ty and Katie were awestruck by the scene before them – sapphire-blue waters surrounded by towering green mountains. For a couple anchored by deep Christian faith, that moment felt almost divine. “We’re very religious people… and I just see God everywhere here,” Ty says of that first day in Kotor.

For the first time in a long time, they felt a weight lifting. “Instead of having 180,000 pounds on our shoulders, we only had 180,” Ty describes, the stress of the past years melting ever so slightly.

‍

‍

Healing in a Safe and Supportive Community

In Montenegro, the Davises found not just a change of scenery, but the community and routine they desperately needed to heal.

Almost immediately, they noticed a difference in their mental health. “I don’t know how to explain it other than, like, it was 24/7 before, where you feel like life is just never going to go on,” Ty says of the depression he carried. “And then you come here and, three or four days will go by, and you’re like, I haven’t even felt the monster.” Katie felt it too. “It was really almost immediate,” she says of the change in atmosphere.

The families support network, along with little acts of kindness are typical of the Boundless Life community. “The friendships that we’ve built here… they just know,” Katie explains.

If she’s having a down day, it often only takes a caring glance from a fellow parent to bring comfort. In one instance, “I have a new friend here, and she just knew I was having a rough few days… she brought me chocolate, and then another friend brought us homemade bagels,” Katie recounts gratefully.

Back in Oregon, it had been too easy to hide away and wallow. “It would be really hard to be depressed here,” Katie says. In terms of the Boundless Life community, Ty explains it like this, “I feel like we use that term so loosely in the States, because community is – "it takes a village," right? Or "a rising tide raises all ships" – whatever adage you want to use. It truthfully is in practice here.”

A Shift in Lifestyle & Daily Routine

The Boundless Life structure and routines are also steering Ty and Katie towards a shift in mindset. The local team, who organize daily activities – yoga classes at a studio down the street, group hikes and runs along the stunning seafront promenade or the weekly family dinner nights.

Inevitably, their participation in these experiences has brought about a lift in their day to day. All those healthy moments begin to stack up. After months of barely finding energy to leave bed back home, the couple suddenly find themselves enjoying the small moments and smiling again.

Most importantly, Kotor is giving them a safe space to confront their pain. Ty found himself opening up to other dads about his mental health, sharing the story of the “monster” in his head that had nearly consumed him. Through this opening up he found understanding, “there’s just too many people here that truthfully care,” Ty observes. Surrounded by such empathy, “there’s just no excuses to be depressed here.”

One of the first things Katie did in Montenegro was join a weekly women’s circle where moms share their highs and lows. It wasn’t easy to speak about her trauma at first, but with every session she felt a bit lighter.

Katie notes, “I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason… we missed out on those other locations for a reason. And this location has been nothing but incredible.” Montenegro, turned out to be exactly where they needed to be.

‍

‍

Strength and Resilience for Their Daughters

In Kotor, Ty and Katie have been mindfully role-modeling resilience for Capri and Tenley. They let their daughters see them processing emotions. And also by taking a leap of faith and uprooting their lives, the Davises showed their children firsthand what it means to take action in the face of adversity.

Ty and Katie remember how anxious and withdrawn their daughters were in the weeks after the collapse – hearts weighed down by the tension at home. However in Montenegro, those burdens are lifted.

They also note how their girls are learning in the Boundless Life Education Center. One afternoon, Ty came home to find his eldest practically glowing with excitement. “Oh my gosh, Mom, Dad, I had the best day ever,” 11-year-old Capri announced. What had thrilled her was a school activity. “They opened up an ‘Endeavor Time’ and everyone voted me as the person that gets to present,” she proudly explained.

Katie and Ty laugh together, recalling that Capri has visited Disney World and Disneyland countless times in her young life – yet here she was declaring that giving a presentation to her classmates on an academic topic was her “best day ever.”

They realize their daughters are not only recovering; they are thriving. The supportive environment in Kotor is giving the girls stability and the opportunity to rediscover joy.

‍

‍

Healing and Looking Ahead

The Davises travel  journey is set to continue with Boundless Life for the next year, eager to keep the positive momentum going.

After Montenegro, they will join cohorts in both Sintra, Portugal and then Bali, Indonesia. They know each destination will be different, but they’re confident now that the Boundless Life formula of community, routine, and adventure will continue to carry them forward.

Meanwhile, Ty and Katie are also thinking about the bigger picture of their lives. They want to share their story and inspire others. They have started sketching out ideas for a family YouTube channel or social media project, something that could spread hope.

They hope that by telling their story of loss and renewal, they can reach others who feel hopeless. “If we can climb out of that hole, you can climb out of whatever it is you’re going through,” Ty says, outlining the message of encouragement he wants to share.

As for right now, the Davis family is simply grateful. Grateful that when they took a leap of faith, the net appeared.

The Davis family’s journey is living proof that even in moments of profound loss, there can be unexpected journey. With the right support and a willingness to leap, healing and connection are possible – even after the worst of betrayals.

‍